The late Bella Abzug was quoted as saying, “There are those who say I’m impatient, impetuous, uppity, rude, profane, brash, and overbearing.” She was all of those things, to be sure. Yet, while these characterizations of Ms. Abzug are undeniably true, she conveniently omits her most damnatory character flaw: That she was a actual Communist, at least according to her fellow Communists and the FBI. Abzug was part of the 1960’s era wave of Jewish feminists which included the likes of Gloria Steinem, Judith Plaskow, and Betty Friedan.
Let’s first authenticate her Communist bonafides. Ms. Abzug had not only a lengthy FBI file approaching 400 pages but a domestic CIA file documenting her subversive actives on behalf of her Communist cause. During the height of the Cold War, Ms. Abzug was adored by our Communist enemies throughout the world. The Links to both her FBI and CIA files can be found below. Her FBI file was the result of hundreds of man hours of surveillance, investigations, interviews and information acquired from confidential informants, including both active and former members of the Communist Party. Here are the highlights or if you will, the lowlights:
- She was placed on the FBI security index for subversives who had Communist Party connections and were considered dangerous. Most domestic Communists were spared the dishonor of making this index.
- FBI officials labeled her “Either an outright Communist Party member or one who follows the line of the Communist Party very closely.”
- Ms. Abzug “paid tribute to attorneys for the Communist Party.”
- “Surveillance of Abzug’s home reveals Soviet official contacts with Abzug and arrangements were made to meet a USSR delegation to the United Nations.” In short, she had meetings with our foreign adversaries on US soil. Further, Communist officials don’t pay mere social visits to their American sympathizers.
- Abzug was “interested in travel to Soviet Union.”
- Abzug was “described by reliable confidential informants as ‘out-and-out’ Communist.’”
- Abzug was referenced in a letter to the FBI which describes Abzug “as a member of numerous Communist Front organizations and whose congressional campaign is a top priority in communist and Soviet diplomatic circles.” Abzug was always eager to help her fellow enemies of America whether they were foreign or domestic.
Still have doubts? Read it for yourself. Links to both her lengthly FBI file and the sanatized CIA file summary are linked below:
Ms Abzug was born Bella Savitzky on July 24, 1920 in The Bronx, New York. Her father was a butcher by trade who operated a small neighborhood delicatessen. Bella’s parents had immigrated to the United States in 1902, after fleeing the brutal antisemitic pogroms loosed on Jews living within Russia at the time. Nobody seems to recall precisely when young Miss Bella Savitzky (Abzug) became so enamored with Communism. She attended an Orthodox Jewish Temple with her family- typically not a spawning ground for Communists. It’s reported that she was captivated by the Russian Bolshevik revolution.
What is known, is that in the closing days before start WWII, when Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact., known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 19-year-old Bella Savitzky (Abzug) become an outspoken advocate for the United States not involving itself in the war that would follow scarcely a week later, when the Communist USSR and Nazi Germany would invade Poland and divide that democratic nation up between themselves as spoils of war. While the rest of the free world looked on in horror, a teenaged Miss Savitzky (Abzug) frantically wrote Senators, Congressmen and spoke to anyone who would listen about how “wrong” it would be for the US to involve itself in “another European war.
The future Ms. Abzug continued her relentless championing of the Party line for nearly two years after the German-Russo invasion of Poland. When asked how she could support the invasion and subjugation of a democratic nation, Miss Savitzky (Abzug) intoned with a straight face, “The people of Poland were liberated by the USSR. Life is much better for them now under Communism.” Some pressed the young Communist on the half million Polish civilians branded as “socially dangerous” and as “anti-Soviet elements” who were forcibly removed from their homes and deported in cattle cars to labor camps in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Miss Savitzky (Abzug) responded with the formulaic, Party approved answer, “These are nothing more than reactionary lies!” Except, they weren’t.
Yet, her tenacious antiwar polemics changed faster than you can say Trotsky, on June 22, 1941 when Germany tossed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact aside and invaded the Communist Soviet Union. Prior to this, she had defended the Germans for their invasions of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and even Czechoslovakia. She had previously and shamelessly brushed aside others questions about Hitler’s treatment of her fellow Jewish people in German occupied territories. Suddenly, as if on a dime, she changed her position from “the Germans are our allies,” to “Germany must be wiped from the map and this country (the United States) has a moral obligation to intervene.” In short, young Bella was happy to be a party shill for Nazi Germany up until the point when Hitler attacked her beloved Soviet Union.
Miss Savitzky (Abzug) then a student at New York’s Hunter College, later obtained a place at the Columbia University School of Law. Some have suggested she gained admission to the Ivy League law school with the help of her Communist Party colleagues. In those days, Columbia was known as a hotbed of so called “Marxist intellectualism.” Did I say “was? Bright Communist youth had an inside track to admissions at certain Ivies because of the Party network of faculty and administrators at many of these colleges who actively “assisted” with the admissions for select numbers of young and promising Party members. Still, this seems somewhat speculative as it is undeniable that. Ms. Abzug would have been a strong candidate for admission to Columbia Law given her high intellect and superior undergraduate record.
However, while a student Columbia Law, a Communist faculty member advised her to remove her name from the Communist Party membership rolls. Whether she was a member of the Communist Youth wing or the actual Communist Party of New York is unclear. Nevertheless, she was advised that her Party membership could possibly raise problems with her being admitted to the New York State Bar after graduation. She took the friendly advice but, did not end her involvement in Communist activities.
Later, after she became a licensed lawyer, she would spend the ensuing decades working for and collaborating with virtually every Communist front group in New York City. Yet alas, we are getting ahead of the story here. While still a law student, Bella volunteered for various public interest law firms and causes. She dreamed of a future as a crusading public interest lawyer, fighting for justice on behalf of the people and against their oppressors! However, she soon discovered that public interest law didn’t pay particularly well. In fact, the pay was quite lousy. This presented a bit of a conundrum for young Bella. Her family had no money to speak of, and she needed to be able to support herself after all! In the parlance of Jeff Lebowski, “…she wants more, man, she’s gotta feed the monkey, I mean–uh, hasn’t that ever occurred to you man? Sir?”
Yes, Bella’s lack of financial resources was an obstacle to her future plans. So, while still a law student, Bella set out to find herself a man or at least some have suggested as much. We’ll never know for sure but as a law student, she just happened to meet a nice you man who was from an affluent family and who didn’t share her radical political views. He was also shall we politely say, rather obsequious toward her- put a check mark in that final box! Maybe it was genuine love at first sight. We’ll never know. Yet it’s unmistakably clear that she chose a husband who openly disagreed with her politics. This is unheard of with Communists. Even mere liberals seldom marry outside their beliefs! Hence, it seems as though the great feminist of the 20th Century chose a groom with the financial resources to support her through her Communist activism. How convenient. This, from the woman who would years later crow, “all the men on my staff know how to type,” So much for, “no woman should have to depend upon a man.”
She found her man and may God have helped him. Bella’s beau was one Martin Abzug. He was by all accounts a great provider for his family and more. Here’s what we do know about Mr Abzug. First, he was a kind, decent and honorable man- a good husband and father. Second, he was not a Communist and in fact he told reporters that that he often disagreed with many of his wife’s political views. Third, he focused on his work and family and avoided the spotlight. In a July 20, 1986 Los Angeles Times article pertaining to Mr. Abzug’s marital challenges he stated , “I didn’t want to be dominated.”
Mr Abzug was an accomplished writer and novelist. He also enjoyed a successful career as a Wall Street stock broker. He came from an affluent Jewish family who operated an established and respected business in the Manhattan Garment industry. Mr Abzug died tragically from a heart attack in 1986.
If Mr. Abzug avoided the spotlight, just the opposite could be said of his wife. The joke in Washington was that the most perilous place to be in town was to be standing between Bella Abzug and a television camera. Bella Abzug was the quintessential “old Battle-axe with about as many ladylike qualities in her as one could expect to find in man like Lee Marvin. “Battling Bella,” as her Leftists admirers called her, was a profane, loud mouthed, gravely voiced, Communist who noisily flaunted her hairy, butch persona.
She had an unladylike appearance and bore an uncanny resemblance to what the late Ed Asner might have looked like in drag. She exhibited all the social graces one might witness at a chapter meeting of their local Hell’s Angels. The Los Angeles Times rather tactfully described Ms. Abzug’s, “propensity for language heard more on the street than in the hallowed halls of Congress.“
Having successfully made a name for herself as a leader in the so called “feminist movement” and as an anti-Vietnam war activist, Ms. Abzug in 1970, figured her time had arrived when she brazenly announced a primary challenge to the liberal, 14-year incumbent Democrat Leonard Farbstein, for a congressional district on Manhattan’s West Side. She defeated Farbstein in that 1970 primary- a shocking upset. Abzug would face the mild mannered Republican talk show host Barry Farber, in the general election.
After her unforeseen primary victory her Republican opponent Mr. Farber, sent the bellicose Ms. Abzug a dozen red roses and a politely worded invitation for a debate to discuss the issues. According to a New York Times article from August 25, 1970:
“The roses did not produce the usual appreciative response. Instead, an angry Mrs. Abzug, who was not at her Sheridan Square headquarters when Mr. Farber called, later charged her opponent with “cheap gimmickry.” She asserted that Mr. Fraber “should come out from behind his mike and roses.” According to a New York Times report on August 25, 1970. Link to the story below:
Although Farber was too gentlemanly to raise Abzug’s Communist past in the 1970 congressional campaign, others did. Their valid concerns and detailed evidence of Bella’s Red double-life were predictably and unashamedly, ignored by the progressive Manhattan press. In the world of liberal media dishonesty, this is what’s known as “bias by omission.”
Ms. Abzug defeated her Republican opponent Barry Farber, in a much closer general election than one usually would expect from the West Side of Manhattan. Many Democrats considered Ms. Abzug a bit too extreme for their liking and voted for her Republican rival. Ms. Abzug would serve a total of three uneventful terms in the US House until she made a long shot bid for United States Senate in 1976. She was easily dispatched in the Democratic Primary by Daniel Patrick Moynihan who went on to win the general election as well. Unfortunately for her, Ms. Abzug’s loud mouthed Lefty brand didn’t sell well outside of Manhattan. After her defeat, she fell off the political rader and into obscurity.
Ms. Abzug was a vile unAmerican Communist who as far as anyone can recall, routinely refused to stand for National Anthem and spurned reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. She hated our country, its freedoms and everything else for which it stands. Given her druthers, she would have all too happily replaced our democratic republic with a communistic, Soviet style police state, replete with reeducation gulags, work camps and Berianesque kill lists. More alarming, is that her legions of unabashed admirers from the political fringe who enjoy chanting, “This is what democracy looks like…,” are aware of all this and nevertheless consider her Marxist dogma to be virtuous. Although, it’s somewhat comforting to know that there’s still at least one Jewish person apart from Karl Marx, for whom the Left is willing to place their anti-semitism in abeyance.
Continue reading
The Historical Truth Project 